


To break the cycle

by Gimmeunicorn



Category: Steven Universe (Cartoon)
Genre: Domestic Fluff, Established Relationship, F/F, Hurt/Comfort, Jasper needs a hug, Light Angst, Relationship boundaries, She will get several, Slice of Life
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-07-19
Updated: 2019-10-21
Packaged: 2020-06-29 16:45:07
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 5
Words: 6,979
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19834348
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Gimmeunicorn/pseuds/Gimmeunicorn
Summary: Peridot and Lapis make it their own personal mission to help Jasper find her place on Earth.Tags and characters may be added later, as the story progresses.The rating might change.OCs are mostly just mentioned, but a main OC will be introduced later in the story.





	1. Prologue

...........................

They let Jasper go live with Peridot and Lapis in the new barn. No one at first thought it was a good idea, and everyone believed either she or Lapis would have reacted badly to the mere suggestion of such an arrangement. Yet two months had passed, and there was still no sign of disturbance coming from the cohabiting trio. If anything, things had become rather quiet since Jasper had stopped living with the other quartzes.

In fact, until then the warrior gem had not seemed able to find peace of mind for herself. Everyone had noticed how uncharacteristically jumpy she was around the other uncorrupted gems. Of course, it was not unusual for a warrior gem to be alert most of the time, as that came as a habit for someone so used to the dangers of the battlefield. Yet, since her reformation, Jasper had not just seemed alert, she had looked outright on edge.

Peridot had noticed immediately one evening when everyone had gathered on the beach for a family barbecue, family in this case including all of the gems that had recently been uncorrupted, and even some Homeworld gems that had decided to stay on Earth. Among all of these people, Jasper was sticking out for looking obviously and uncharacteristically uncomfortable.

Now, the thing about Peridot was that she was much more observant than most people gave her credit for. For a while she could just guess what was bothering the large gem, but it did not take her long to put the pieces together when a commotion broke the cheerful atmosphere.

"Hey, sister, calm down! It wasn't on purpose".

Peridot looked up from the videogame Connie had just started showing her on the girl's portable console, and saw Amethyst standing in between Jasper and a small group of uncorrupted Chrystal Gems. Behind her the other gems and Steven had noticed something was off, and were looking in concern.

"I'm sorry... it's better if I go back inside", grumbled Jasper, visibly embarrassed, as she made a move to go back inside the provisional shelter beside the beach house.

Steven rushed to Amethyst's side. "What happened?!", he asked, to which the purple gem replied shrugging.  
"Watermelongirl here-", she said patting a mortified-looking Watermelon Tourmaline on the back of the leg, "-bumped into Jasper as she was backing up to receive a volley, and big sis got all riled up, for some reason!".

"Well, if someone I fought against in a war bumped into me I would be riled up, too!".

Everyone turned to look at Peridot in surprise, not having noticed that she had been following what was happening, until she had spoken. "I'm just saying that she must be tense, having to share her living space with ex enemies, while also having to come to terms with the fact that her diamond was Rose Quartz".

"Well, she has a point", Steven admitted, gloomily, "we might have overestimated how alright everyone would have been now that the conflict was over". They all looked at each other. The reality of facts had finally hit them, and they all felt a little embarrassed that they just now realised that not everyone may have adapted too well to their new life, at least not at first and not so easily. "What do we do, now?", Amethyst asked.

Peridot scrunched her brows, assuming a thoughtful expression for a while. "I need to ask Lapis first, but maybe Jasper could come stay with us". Both Steven and Amethyst looked at her like she had sprouted a second head.

"Duuude, you can't be serious?!", shouted Amethyst. "Is she serious?", she asked again, this time to a confused Steven.  
"I am here, you know...", said Peridot, slightly annoyed. "And, yes, I am serious. After all we've got a barn all by ourselves, while Jasper is surrounded by so many other gems all day".

Steven frowned. "That's true, but do you think Lapis will be ok with it?". Amethyst nodded solemnly to stress his point.

"I don't know, that's why I said I'll ask her, first".

To say the truth, she did not expect Lapis to say yes to her idea. Yet, she felt like she had to try. Something was very off about how things had gone down between jasper and the two of them. 

Lapis and herself had both got their chances at redemption and at finding a place they could call home, but Jasper had not. True, she had not made things easier for herself, antagonising the Chrystal Gems at every occasion, but neither had them, in the beginning. They were all just acting according to what they knew and were taught on Homeworld. Maybe if they gave Jasper some breathing space, and let her live with people she was already somewhat familiar with, then she also would have a chance to find her place in this world.

That's why she was relieved when Lapis unexpectedly said yes.

Peridot did not ask Lapis what made her agree to this. As much as she disliked feeling like this, she still feared the blue gem's reaction to some topics, something she also wanted to sort out, soon. Yet, she hoped that Lapis had also reached her same conclusion.

And so, with no little reluctance from the Chrystal Gems, and confusion from Jasper, the orange gem moved to the new barn on the beach.


	2. Local

Lapis woke up quite early that morning. A lot of things has changed in the last few months, but her love for the human custom had remained unchanged. Sleeping helped her relax when the stress that came with her new status as Chrystal Gem became too much. Not that that was something she was not proud of, it was just hard to adapt to the responsibilities that came with it, sometimes. Like making sure there was harmony among the many gems who came to live in Beach City, and this included Jasper. But this was not the only reason why she had agreed to letting her live in the barn, when Peridot had tentatively proposed the idea. At least not entirely.

The period before this arrangement had been tense, and Lapis knew this was due to not being able to resolve her issues regarding Jasper, despite the warrior gem being now on their side. There simply was no contact between them that forced them to face their past. This until it became clear that Jasper was not ready yet to live together with the others. Lapis understood the feeling of being the stranger, of being expected to feel at ease around people who were once your enemies and who you thought did not care about you. So she had pushed down her instinct to stay as far away from Jasper as possible, and said yes when Peridot had asked if they could let her stay there with them.

Lapis did not expect things to be easy and magically get better. That much was clear from the way the warrior gem made herself uncharacteristically small whenever she saw Peridot and Lapis, and from the way Lapis tensed whenever she saw her. Just the other day the orange gem had come into the barn while Lapis was alone reading a book. Usually, when Peridot was also present, the green gem would lighten the mood by making some sassy comment or talking about any significant event around them. But that day she had found herself alone face to face with Jasper, and the atmosphere had immediately shifted to uncomfortable. The bigger gem had hesitated on her feet for a few endless seconds, before turning around and heading to a differentpart of the barn, leaving Lapis suspended between the need to pretend she was not there, and saying something.

Lapis sighed as she headed to the front door, where she was greeted by the morning's first rays of sun. She stepped outside and took in the beautiful sight of the beach at sunrise. Lapis was glad that, in the end, they were convinced to rebuild the barn on the beach, just like Steven had suggested when he found her hiding on the moon, months ago. This way they could have their privacy whithout being too far from the other, this time not just by warp pad.

Lapis snapped back from her thoughts when she saw Jasper walking on the beach, rapt by the shimmering waves. Lapis was pondering whether she should approach her, when she felt a hand on her shoulder. The blue gem shrieked in surprise, making Peridot also jump back, alarmed.

"Oh, it's you!", Lapis laughed. "Sorry, I was thinking". Peridot looked past her shoulder to the gem close to the water. "Did you want to talk to her?", she asked. "Yes- well, I think so", she replied, blushing faintly for having been caught staring at Jasper.

The green gem smiled brightly. "Then you should!", she exclaimed excitedly. "She has been here for a while, now". Lapis nodded, but she had a frown on her face. "I'm not finding it too easy to initiate a conversation", she admitted.

Peridot took one of her hands in hers, smiling reassuringly. "Would it be better if I was with you? I can get it started and when I see you are comfortable I'll find an excuse to leave you two alone". Lapis thought about it for a while. Maybe Peridot's contagious openness really could help her create a dialogue with Jasper. "Ok", she smiled. Peridot nodded encouragingly, and took her companion's hand to lead her out of the barn and towards the gem currently contemplating the waves.

They knew Jasper could hear them approaching, her reflexes were too sharp to miss the swishing of sand against two pairs of feet, yet, the bigger gem did not turn to face them immediately, maybe hoping they would ignore her. When they stopped just a few meters behind her, the orange gem turned around, her brows furrowed and her jaw tense. She clearly expected whatever this encounter was going to be, that it was going to be unpleasant.  
ļ  
"Hey, Jasper!", Peridot shrilled. "What are you doing out here?".

"I went on a walk", she said, not offering any further prompt for conversation.

"Walk! Cool, a healthy morning routine to begin the day".

A few seconds of unconfortable silence followed, during which all three gems avoided to meet each other's eyes, Lapis slightly twisting her hands in obvious discomfort.  
"Aaalright... Lapis and I have decided to work on some meep morps, later, would you like to join us?", Peridot said, when she felt that the athmoshere had gotten too awkward. She looked at Jasper with pleading eyes. The big gem seemed taken aback by the offer. "Meep... morps...?", she asked with a raised eyebrow.

Lapis, who had kept silent until that moment, intervened, "what she means is that you get a bunch of things and put them together in a way that you like. Peridot and I like to make meep morps that represent something meaningful to us, but it doesn't have to be like that. You can do it just for fun". Lapis did not meet Jasper's eyes for the whole explanation, and only lifted hers to check the bigger gem's eaction. This was really nothing extraordinary, the unreadable, cold expression that had characterised Jasper these past few days was present even now.

Lapis saw Peridot gulping almost imperceptibly, beside her. Despite her nervousness, the green gem spoke once more, "Well, we will be doing that inside the barn. Join us any time, if you want". Said this, the smaller gem grabbed Lapis by the hand, and they slowly started making their way back to the barn. Jasper's piercing eyes followed them their whole way back, unreadable expression still present on the big gem's face.

"Wow, it really was more difficult than I had initially calculated", Peridot said once they were out of Jasper's ear range. "Sorry, it's my fault. I see she is much more relaxed when she's just talking to you", confessed Lapis with a gloomy look on her face.

"What? No, it's not your fault, I'm sure she just needs time". Peridot offered her companion a sympathetic smile. "Maybe she will consider our offer and join us later, or another time", she added. Lapis nodded, humming lightly and trying to conceal her disappointment, and the two started heading back towards the barn.

Despite the idea having been all part of Peridot's ploy to make Jasper interact more with the two of them, the two gems decided to actually start working on some meep morps, since they had nothing more important to do early in the morning. They had just scattered some of the random objects retrieved from the old barn on the floor, and were thinking of ways to mash them together, when a noise coming from the door caught their attentlion.

Jasper stood in the doorway with what the two smaller gems could only describe as fire in her eyes. Her shoulders were tense and her large fists clenched. The warrior gem took a few long steps into the room. Lapis saw Peridot tensing and making herself small, a reflex to prepare her to be yelled at from when Jasper used to storm in her quarters on the hand ship in a similar fashion, years ago.

Jasper stopped just a few centimetres from where the blue and green gems were sitting on the floor. After a few uncomfortable moments of silence, she spoke.

"I... would like you to teach me how to make... that stuff you are making".

"...Meep morps?".

"Meep morps".


	3. Bleed

Hard and without a practical purpose were things that used to be comdemned by Homeworld. Jasper had learned this in the hundreds of years she spent as part of Yellow Diamond's court, where efficiency was the priority. Now here she was, having to force this lesson out of her mind because, apparently, her chances to better fit in with her hosts depended on doing something very complicated and almost definitely useless by practical standards.

Jasper frowned at the trash all around her, then back at where her two housemates were already assembling them into some kind of constructions. She was clueless. The more she looked at what Peridot and Lapis had put together, the less she knew what she was suposed to do. Both had constructed something different, Lapis a pearly round object on some sort of clothed stand and two filaments that looked like antennas sticking out from the top, Peridot a shapeless mass of blue goo with a glass calice filled with water coming out of it sideways. There was no logical pattern that Jasper could follow to make something of her own. To make it worse, their dirrctiond did not help at all. This was disheartening.

In front of her, Lapis must have noticed because Jasper saw the blue gem looking at Jasper's empty hands, then back at her own creation and frown. She would have liked to know Lapis' thoughts. She missed being able to do that. No matter how painful the images in Lapis' mind had felt when coursing through their shared consciousness, when they were fuded as Malachite, Jasper missed the feeling of intimacy.

Her thoughts were interrupted by soft murmuring not far from her, and she focussed again in time to see Peridot whispering something millimeters from Lapis's face, before the blue gem got up and turned to Jasper.

"We didn't want to intrude, but you looked like you could use some help". Lapis twisted her hands anxiously, as she was waiting for an answer from Jasper. Behind her, Peridot was carefully observing the bigger gem's reaction with a worried look on her face.

"I...yes, I may need assistance", Jasper's mouth formed a small grimace, "I do not quite understand how to proceed, by just looking at you", she admitted, bitterly, embarrassment evident in her voice. Lapis smiled. Were Lapis any other gem, and were this back in the days when Jasper was still serving Homeworld, she would have punched her the face for being so bold in her presence. But neither was true, and Jasper only found herself blushing, violently chasing away the fleeting thought that Lapis' smile looked much better on her than the expression of pained resignation she had mostly known her for.

"It's ok, Jasper, it can be confusing at first. We shouldn't have just given you a quick explanation, when it took us much longer to figure this out our first time". Lapis offered Jasper an apologetic look. "When we meep morp, we usually use the objects to convey something that is of meening to us, and think about how we can put stuff together in the best way to express that message. Or you could try what looks nice together and just have fun seeing what comes out. Do you want to try?".

Peridot moved beside her companion and pointed to something beyond where Jasper was standing. "That is one of the first meep morps I made, when Lapis and myself had just moved into the barn together. We didn't start with the right foot, and at first Lapis didn't like me because of our shared past. She broke the tape recorder Steven had given me, when I tried to give it to her as a gift!", Peridot chuckled. Lapis suddenly blushed a deeper blue and looked down in embarrassment. Peridot continued, "so, you see, I chose to display this broken tape recorder as a reminder of our difficulties making a connection in the beginning, but also how far we've come since then".

Lapis put a hand on Jasper's shoulder, tentatively. Jasper had to steel herself not to jump at the unexpected contact, but but did not reject the gesture. "You can take your time. This should be a fun experience, so don't feel like you have to meet some sort of expectation". Jasper nodded, and Lapis withdrew her hand. Peridot and herself went back to their spots on the floor and started once more to tweak with their strange creations.

For the following twenty minutes or so, Jasper tried to do what they had suggested, considering what of the stuff around her she could work with to express her inner world. The fact was, since she had been released, said inner world had been rather tumultuous. She still was not sure what she felt or thought regarding what had happened to her, and about how everything around her had changed. She did not understand how such a boring procedure could be effective to express something so - she tried putting her head around what exactly it was that she was feeling - something messy and intense.

She thought about Peridot's meep morp and how clear its message was. Beyond feeling surprised at discovering how troubled her relationship with Lapis had been in the beginning, she also felt envious of their skill in being able to visualuse these feelings well enough to represent them with a bunch of trash.

She felt confused and angry at the same time. She had been lied to by the people she had sworn loyalty to, and now they expected her to be fine with it. She did not even know if she was allowed to express her feelings. She was used not to have this freedom.

Jasper picked up a plank of wood that was standing against a wall and looked around for other stuff that could go with it, but nothing really seemed to catch her eye. Not only this, but thinking so hard about her feelings after having tried to ignore them for so long had made her patience even thinner than before, making this task seem even more tedious and useless. She really did not know what good could come out of this.

She had just finished having this exasperated thought when she noticed something in the corner of her eye. Some small tubes, each presenting a single colourful transversal stripe, were grouped together in a crate. Jasper got closer to inspect the strange objects. Unfortunately, she still could not discern their function just by looking at them.

"What are these?", she asked. The other two both looked up from their projects and followed Jasper's gaze to where the crate was. "Oh, those? That's paint", said Peridot, being met by a confused look from Jasper. "Yeah, humans use those to make meep morps too, just, they work a little differently. Wait, I can demonstrate". The shorter gem headed to the crate and took one of the tubes with a yellow band. She uncapped the top, before squeezing a small amount of the yellow goo inside onto a small square that she had also retrieved from the crate.

"The colour on the outside matches what is inside, and you use this to colour anything you want, you see", she took a long object with a tuft at its extremity. She dipped it in the goo and smeared some of it on the corner of the crate the tube had been in. "Humans use them to paint on different things, and sometimes they have specific things where to paint in called a canvas. You can use them, if you want".

Finished her explanation, Peridot left Jasper and went back to where she was originally sitting. The orange gem contemplated the rainbow in the crate. She had felt at a loss before, now that all this new information had been thrown at her, there was no way for her to get her head around what exactly constituted a meep morp. Yet she had to admit that this new finding had awakened her curiosity.

She grabbed a handful of tubes with a large hand, and studied them carefully. She picked up one which ended up being a bright pink, and uncapped it before tentatively squuzing some of the sickly pink contents on one of the sticks. She retrieved the wooden board from her lap and smeared the excess paint on it. Jasper brought the stick back down to spread the lump of colour like Peridot had just minutes before, but she miscalculated her force on it, and the fragile shaft broke in half as the soft tip made contact with the wood of the board.

Jasper frowned and reached to get a second stick from the crate. This one too was met by the same gate of its predecessor, when Jasper tried to use it. A third followed seconds after.

The warrior gem grunted in frustration, piercing the small lump of paint on the board with eyes of storm. She gave up and, angry, stamped the lump with her fingertip, then dragging it roughly and creating an uneven stroke accentuated by a deep scratch left by the orange gem's fingernail. Jasper stopped. The sensation under her fingertip had not been unpleasant. There was something about the pressure of her fingertip on the colour and on the board that felt soothing.

Jasper squeezed more of the pink colour on the board and repeated the process, not minding the force she was putting into her strokes. She did not know if what she was making could be considered a meep morp, but she knew that the stream of thoughts that had just added to her mind's restlessness before, now was almost driving her actions. Months of frustration and inner turmoil channelled into powerful strokes and scratches. By the time she was done, the wooden board was a display of claw marks bleeding bright pink. Jasper took a moment to study it, feeling oddly satisfied.

"That's... that's something". Peridot was peeking at Jasper's creation from behind her own piece. The big gem grunted in embarrassment, taken aback by the attention that was now on her handiwork. "Woah, that actually looks cool", came a barely audible comment from Lapis, who had also looked up after hearing Peridot's comment. Her impressed expression soon became one of alarm. "Are you alright?!", she said in a much louder tone, pointing at Jasper's hand. The orange gem's fingers were constellated with splinters, the claw marks on the wooden board all the evidence Peridot and Lapis needed to figure out what had happened.

"Yes", she replied. Her skin was tough, and she would have not noticed the splinters if this had not been pointed out to her. This was not something that would damage her in any way, so rationally not something worthy of concern, either. At least according to Homeworld standards, this was the thought she was supposed to be having. Yet, she could not avoid wondering, for a second, if it could be good to give some thought to what had just transpired.


	4. To break the waves

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for updating so late!
> 
> With my university dissertation out of the way, hopefully now I will have more time to write this.
> 
> I hope you will enjoy this chapter!

That evening Lapis found Jasper on the back of the barn, sitting near the eastern wall of the cliff. They had all been surprised of how their little meep morp session, earlier, had turned out. Jasper had soon dismissed her work, and excused herself before Peridot or Lapis could start asking too many questions.

They thought it would be better to give her time, and that is what Lapis had been meaning to do in the beginning. But now that she had found the striped gem sitting on the rocks, and seemingly lost in deep thought, some unknown force made her feel like she needed to talk to her. So she approached the bigger gem slowly, although she knew that said gem was perfectly aware of Lapis approaching.

"Have you come here to laugh at me?". Lapis stopped a few steps from the other, not exactly out of fear but still not wanting to push Jasper's buttons too much..  
"No, why do you think I would do that?", she asked. When the orange gem spoke, Lapis could hear the grimace just from her tone, and felt something twist painfully in her chest. "Because all I was good for was clawing at a chunk of wood, even after you had explained to me how to make a meep morp. That was supposed to be a simple task", jasper growled, bitterly. Lapis unconsciously moved her right hand to her left arm, squeezing anxiously.

She was already contemplating turning around and leaving the orange gem alone, when the other's voice snapped her out of her overthinking. "If this is about Malachite you can stop worrying, I am not holding anything against you", the big gem growled low in her throat.

Lapis froze for a second, taken aback by the topic of Malachite being brounght up so suddenly. As the initial shock passed, her stunned expression was gradually replaced by outrage. She let out an angry huffing noise, puffing her cheeks before opening her mouth as if to say something, but not managing to form the words. 

"How- Is- is it that hard for you to believe that we are concerned about you?!", Lapis finally snapped, raising her voice. Jasper finally turned slightly in her direction, a small sign of acknowledgement, interested in this new turn of events. "I know this is not about Malachite. I know... it still affects me... but this is not what has been on your mind, is it? Why don't you want us to care about how you feel?".

Now Jasper had fully turned around to face Lapis, completely looming over her even from her seated position, an eyebrow raiseyd both in question and mockery. Instead of being intimidated, the blue gem puffed her cheeks even more in challenge. The nerve! Jasper only scoffed, before grinning almost imperceptibly. Lapis did not let herself be discouraged by the veiled mockery of her attempt at showing empathy. "Listen, we've all been affected by Pink Diamond's actions, in different ways", she said tentatively, expecting a violent reaction from Jasper at the mention of the name. Nothing happened. No discernible emotional reaction from the warrior gem. So she continued, reassured that she would not be punched in the face, at least not right away, "and you... you and Pearl were the closest to her of us, we can't even imagine what that must feel like, but we know it must be very painful". Lapis studied Jasper's expression carefully, searching for any sign from the larger gem that could tell her what she was thinking, after what Lapis had just said. The warrior just stared at her coldly, though a hint of scepticism could be detected in her slightly raised eyebrow and tense lips.

"And you telling me these things will change what happened in what way, exactly... ?", Jasper retorted. This time Lapis did not hesitate as much before replying, having expected a similar comment from the orange gem. She looked Jasper straight in the eyes, not as a challenge but hoping to communicate just how serious she was about what she was about to say. "It won't. But now you are free to chose not to face these feelings alone. When Peridot and I first arrived here we were given the chance to heal from our past experiences and to make this place our home. You didn't have this chance, but this can change now, if you let us help you".

Jasper's eyebrow did not lower one bit. A few uncomfortable seconds passed during which Jasper's skepticism remained obvious, if one were to trust her unimpressed expression. "You two are seriously ok with this?", she asked, suddenly.

"Helping you? Yes! We wouldn't be here if Steven and his friends decided not to give us a chance", Lapis began explaining, "and we believe that basing our idea of each other on how we were pressured to be like under the diamonds is not fair. We want to start anew meeting the real you".

Jasper made a clicking noise with her tongue. "I doubt it will change anything", she said while getting up, with the intention of heading back to the barn. Lapis moved back to let the bigger gem walk past her, already anticipating the disappointment at Jasper dismissing her words and leaving, when the orange gem suddenly stopped. "But since I have nothing better to do, I guess I will do some of your "fun" things, so maybe then you will spare me your sympathetic nonsense".

With that, Jasper was gone, heavy steps muffled by the sand. Lapis remained where she was, following the trail leading to the barn with her eyes, while the warrior gem walked away. She wished she could have said more to Jasper. She had been quick to deny wanting to discuss malachite, but she knew that topic too was far from resolved and they would have to face it, eventually. But this encounter had still not been a total failure. At least Jasper was giving them a chance, and Lapis felt some of the tension between the two of them had been released during their confrontation. This would do, for now.

Five days later, Lapis returned to the barn after a morning flight to meet with Steven and Peridot. They were supposed to do a CPH rewatch marathon. She knew the youngest of the Chrystal Gems was sick of watching season three, but she also knew he just wanted to have a good time with them, so he would second Peridot's enthusiasm about those episodes. For this, Lapis was very glad and grateful to the boy.

She heard talking and, expecting it to be only Steven and Peridot talking in front of the TV, quickly climbed the wide ladder that led to the upper floor where the green gem had decided to create their "movie night corner". Except sitting between them was Jasper, who looked very awkward, sitting in silence while the other two were caught in some discussion.

"We have rewatched this season together over five times, and I did over thirty times, you can not expect me to forgive Paulette's behaviour at this point, Steven".

"But, if you looked really closely at episode nine-"

"Enough!"

Lapis silently sat down, almost unnoticed by the two bickering friends. On the other side of the couch, Jasper sent her a pleading look.

"You get used to it", Lapis tried to reassure her, offering her a small smile.


	5. Tea

When Peridot had proposed that Jasper move in with them, she had half expected it to end in disaster. So she was obviously surprised at the direction this experimebt was taking. She could see that the former warrior was really trying to get integrated into her new home, and to get to know (really get to know) Lapis and herself.  
She was especially touched by how willing Lapis was to make this as easy for Jasper as possible. At first, Peridot was afraid that Lapis would be too anxious to approach her former captor, and would not give her a chance.

Peridot was so proud of all the progress her companion had made since they had met, over a year ago. She had to admit that they had gone through what Amethyst had once defined "a rough patch", after the blue gem had returned from the moon. She had panicked about the Diamonds attacking Earth, and left with the barn and all of their shared possessions, leaving Peridot feeling alone and heartbroken. It had taken time for trust to be rebuilt once the two of them were reunited. Eventually the dormant spark that had united them before was re-ignited, and even morphed into something new as every day Lapis showed how much she cared about her, their friends and their home. They had soon realised that this new sentiment was love, and since then they had been tentatively exploring all of these new feelings neither of them had ever experienced before.

As much as Peridot was touched by Lapis' dedication to their growing relationship, nothing made her prouder than the way her girlfriend had over time managed to open her heart to the love of others and heal the wounds of her past traumas. And now she had understood Peridot's wish to help someone else heal, despite their troubled past together. Peridot knew how hard this must have been for the blue gem. It had taken time even for herself to be less tense in Jasper's presence, and all she had to get past was only a few months of half-hearted verbal abuse by Jasper when they were heading together to Earth in the handship. This made Lapis' effort even more admirable, considering the extent of the abuse Jasper and herself had subjected each other to.

In the past few weeks Jasper had gradually relaxed and started to join them more and more often in their daily activities. Initially she was probably doing this just because she felt she had to, but now Peridot had the sensation that she was starting to enjoy their time together. At least she was sure that Jasper enjoyed making meep morps. Now that she knew that expressing her feelings that way was acceptable, she seemed to be giving it her everything. 

What Peridot noticed she did not enjoy doing was anything that involved the other Chrystal Gems. Whenever she knew thay were going to be somewhere, she tried not to get involved. Peridot had also noticed how uncomfortable she looked whenever Steven was around, but imagined that the warrior's loyalty to Pink Diamond urged her not to deny the boy her company. This reminded Peridot of Lapis' attitude towards the Chrystal qGems in the beginning, when they had just started living together. Except Lapis really liked Steven even then, although that probably was because his identity as Pink Diamond's son had still not been revealed to them.

Today looked like it was going to be one of those days. Both Steven and Amethyst had invited Peridot to play video games at the temple, and Steven had asked if Jasper wanted to join them. As it was to be expected, when Peridot delivered the message to her, Jasper had reacted with a pained grimace that only lasted one second before agreeing to join them, as it was the boy's wish.

The afternoon was spent in relative harmony. Jasper surprisingly soon became immersed in the videogame. Everyone had expected her not to be good at it, partly because of her inexperience with human technology and entertainment, though Peridot had secretly thought that her big fingers would have made ot hard to use a controller regardless. To everyone's surprise, once she was explained the commands and had done a few practice trials, Jasper got the hang of the game really fast. Apparently, her warrior reflexes made her extremely skilled at the fighting game once she had learned the basic mechanics. She even managed to win her first PvP match against Peridot, despite the green gem's experience with the game. Later she lost to Steven in the final round, though Peridot was still convinced the big gem made him win on purpose. Despite this Jasper seemed... relaxed, almost, probably finding the simulated fight cathartic and forgetting about her anxieties about Steven and the Gems for a moment.

The three finished playing after another half hour, when Steven announced he would be off to meet Connie in town. He grabbed his jacket from beside the bed and dashed down the stairs while waving the other three goodbye, leaving them alone in his bedroom.

"That much hurry can only mean it's an official date this time", snickered Amethyst, leaning towards Peridot as if to reveal a secret. The green gem grinned back. Jasper shiften awkwardly in her seat, clearly unsure how to behave, but bolted up relieved when the other two got up from their spots on the carpet to go downstairs.

They had just arrived in the kitchen when Peridot saw her tense up and assume a panicked expression even before she noticed Pearl at the counter beside them.

"Amethyst, Peridot, Jasper! Steven has left already? I had made tea", the slim gem said, disappointed. "Well, since you three are still here why don't you stop anyways?". Peridot grimaced lightly, "you mean, stopping to drink and eat human food? What gem would want to do tha-", she noticed Amethyst's excited face, "oh, you would, amethyst...", she scoffed.

"Yeeees, I would! And you're staying too, right? We can pretend to be high class ladies and drink with our pinkies up", she said while mimicking drinking and making an impression of a stuck up noble. Peridor rolled her eyes, "Oh, that is not even real etiquette, it's just a misconception that you raise your pinkies", she argued. Amethyst raised one eyebrow, "and since when you know about tea drinking etiquette?", she teased the other small gem. "Since I researched it online after it was mentioned in episode nineteen of season two of CPH. In truth, I could now be considered a tea expert. I think I will stay and show you clods how to properly drink tea".

Behind the bantering gems, Jasper managed to draw the attention on herself by clearing her throat. "I think I should leave. If you may excuse me", she said firmly before briefly nodding to no one in particular and making her exit, making sure not to break her composure.

"On second thought I think I will go, too", said Peridot seconds after Jasper had disappeared past the glass door of the beach house. "I'll leave those disgusting organic digestion processes to you, Amethyst. I'm sure you'll master them". And with that, the green gem was also out of the door.

It took peridot all of her energy to catch up with Jasper, since the warrior gem's long stride had taken her several meters from the house in seconds. "Hey, wait, we can go back together", she said once by Jasper's side.

"You don't have to leave because I did", retorted Jasper. "I wasn't leaving because you di-", jasper shot her a skeptical look, "ok, I left because you did, those clods are lost without my guidance", admitted Peridot, not missing the opportunity to brag at the same time. Jasper scoffed, "yes, you are so indispensable to them that they handed their ass to you when you were still on different sides", she said indignantly.

"Aha! I knew that it was about this!", Peridot shrilled suddenly, making Jasper wince reflexively. "Look, the Christal Gems are not that bad. I understand that it must feel unnerving working with someone who was your enemy last time you met, but so it was for me in the beginning, and with time I got to understand them and become their friend. No one is asking you to get along immediately, but if you tried to give it a chance and work alongside them, maybe then you would feel better about them".

Jasper smiled, surprising Peridot. "Working with them would already be different. I'm a soldier, Peridot. I am ready to fight alongside adversaries, when necessary. This sap is something different". Her eyes softened a little, something the green gem was just recently getting used to, and added with a less harsh tone "I know you want to help, Peridot, but me and them have a history that I can not forget so easily. I can't just start acting as their friend as easily as you have".

Peridot could not find something to say in retort, so just followed the bigger gem along the beach. She honestly had something to say about Jasper's assumption that it had been easy for her to befriend the Chrystal Gems, but let the matter go not to make the other gem nervous. She followed deep in thought until suddenly a brilliant idea crossed her mind. How had she not thought of this before?

Peridot bolted back towards the beach house so fast that it took Jasper a few moments to notice the other missing. She was sure the bigger gem had shrugged and kept walking, even without looking back to check. Better this way, she had important matters to discuss, and probably be called crazy for.


End file.
